


Stain Removal

by serendipityxxi



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Blowjobs, F/M, M/M, Multi, boat repair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-02 18:56:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8679508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: “I thought,” Audrey breaks off from the thought and gives a hysterical little laugh. “I thought…”“You thought it was aether,” Duke finishes for her, his voice flat for all the words send a shudder down his spine.“I was fixing a part, and grease got on my hands. Then Duke kissed me and I got some on him,” Nathan explains.Audrey nods, pulls away, “Yeah, I get that Nathan,” she snaps but her voice quavers on his name. They’ve left Haven and the aether behind, the Troubles are over, but Audrey and Duke will forever carry Mara with them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Major thanks to my betas for all the hand holding on this!

The sound of the alarm is loud--it echoes through every nook and cranny of the _Rouge_. It sets Duke’s heart thumping and his feet pounding across the decks to get to the engine room without a second thought. Duke arrives shirtless and out of breath, hair wild and eyes wilder, to find Nathan Wuornos of all people sitting on the floor in front of the wailing panel. Nathan has a screwdriver between his teeth and the intense focus in his eyes that he gets when he is _determined_ to solve a problem. Nathan glances up at Duke’s entrance, grunts a greeting, and returns his gaze to the pair of pliers he’s wielding just so.

Duke resists the urge to swoop in and take over--barely--and instead forces a sarcastic smile. “Well, well, if it isn’t my Jolly Sailor Bold manning the yard arm.”

Nathan rolls his eyes. “Got this,” he tells Duke around the screwdriver, voice certain as his hands.

“I can see that,” Duke replies; he’s impressed almost against his will.

It’s not that he doesn’t want Nathan to be capable of taking care of the _Rouge_ , he’s just surprised at how capable Nathan really is. Nathan’s steady hands tease the parts into place, his blue eyes fixated on the task. Duke will never admit it, but he loves watching Nathan make the _Rouge_ his own. The boat and everything that came with it had been a thorn between them for years. It’s nice to see Nathan making peace with it. Watching him care for the _Rouge_ hits hard because Duke knows that when Nathan takes care of something, he claims it. It’s his. He’ll always take care of it.

It’s clear Nathan’s forgotten Duke when he mutters a curse a few moments later. Then croons, “c’mon, old girl,” as he tries the panel again.

Duke pulls his phone from his back pocket and snaps a picture to send to Beattie with the caption _I’ll make a sailor of him yet._ She’ll get a kick out of that.

It’s a nice little shot of pleasure to watch the panel light up and the satisfaction spread across Nathan’s face. The alarm stops, and in the silence Nathan remembers his audience. He looks up, proud and expectant that Duke will be impressed and pleased. It still blows Duke’s mind that _Nathan Wuornos_ cares what he thinks; more than that, he wants Duke’s approval. And he’s done damn good. He’s fixed the problem in almost the same amount of time it would have taken Duke himself to do it.

Duke grins and stretches out a hand to help him off the floor. Nathan takes it without hesitation. Duke hauls him up and kisses him, hard. Because he can. Because he wants to. Because Nathan will kiss him back just like this, all intense and _determined_ , like kissing Duke is something Nathan wants to accomplish, like there’s nothing he’d rather be doing than kissing Duke. And Duke will never admit how many years he’s wanted this, but it falls under too many.

Nathan’s hands roam his bare back. Duke can feel the grease from the panel on Nathan’s fingers spreading to his own skin, but he couldn’t care less. Duke scratches his fingers through the short hair at the nape of Nathan’s neck and feels Nathan’s sigh of pleasure in a gust of warm air across his lips. It makes Duke grin into the kiss, pressing harder, as Nathan’s hands pull him closer.

The door clangs open behind them with force, and before they can turn, Audrey’s pulling them apart.

“Duke?” Audrey’s voice is as close to panic as he’s ever heard it, her eyes are wild.

“What happened to Duke?” she demands of Nathan.

“What?” Duke asks, and okay, it’s not the most intelligent of responses. But, to be fair, Nathan Wuornos was just kissing his brains out.

“Your back!” Audrey insists. Her hands hover though she hasn’t touched it, touched him, yet. The horror in her face has Duke’s heart rate speeding up. He feels fine. He tries to crane around to see at the same time that Nathan spins him to get a look.

“What is it?” Duke demands.

“It’s grease, Parker,” Nathan says in that slow, careful way he has when he’s trying to calm someone down.

Duke lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding as Nathan’s finger swipes through what he assumes is a smear of grease over his shoulder blade. He holds the hand out to Audrey and it’s only then Duke realizes that it’s Audrey that Nathan’s trying to defuse.

Her eyes are wide and terror filled, and her hands are trembling where they still hover over him.

“I thought,” Audrey breaks off from the thought and gives a hysterical little laugh. “I thought…”

“You thought it was aether,” Duke finishes for her, his voice flat for all the words send a shudder down his spine.

Her gaze darts to his, and for a moment Duke sees the guilt and grief there, before Audrey’s snatched up a dirty rag from the floor and is swiping at Duke’s back.

“It won’t come off,” she says and Duke can feel the grease spreading, not wiping off. Audrey scrubs at a splotch and he winces.

But it’s Nathan who complains, “Parker, he’s still wearing that skin.”

He says it in his best normal voice but Duke still hears the strain, the worry underneath it.

Audrey shakes her head even as Nathan pulls the rag from her hands, tugs her around to face him.

Duke knows he needs to say something but he just stands there, watches them. Nathan has Audrey’s face in his hands, and her breathing is slowing now that she’s not looking at Duke’s back.

“I was fixing a part,” Nathan continues speaking in that quiet, calm voice. Duke takes the moment to get right with himself, to calm the hell down. Audrey’s panic unsettled him more than he’d like to admit. “and grease got on my hands. Then Duke kissed me and I got some on him,” Nathan explains.

Audrey nods, pulls away, “Yeah, I get that Nathan,” she snaps but her voice quavers on his name. Still, she forges on. “Sorry I overreacted,” she tells Duke’s shoulder.

She can’t look him in the face right then he realizes.

They’ve left Haven and the aether behind, the Troubles are over, but Audrey and Duke will forever carry Mara with them.

Duke takes a deep breath and reaches out to her, his fingers gentle as they tip her chin up. “Audrey,” he says carefully, “it’s okay. I’m okay.”

Audrey nods, blue eyes full of vulnerability she so rarely allows. She doesn’t say _but you weren’t for so long._ She doesn’t say _but I couldn’t save you from her_. She doesn’t say it, but Duke knows, because he knows her. She’s Audrey Parker--her job is saving people.

The thing is he also knows how much Mara scared her. He’s never seen her turn tail and run from anything except Mara. She’s faced monsters and magics and never flinched--but Mara scared her, and Duke cannot blame her for that. Does he wish things had gone down differently? That he hadn’t spent all that time running and self-destructing? Yes. And maybe in some other universe he wouldn’t forgive Audrey for not saving him. In some other universe, he might blame Nathan for his godawful timing at showing he gave a damn when Mara was poisoning Duke’s mind and making him feel like the only thing he would ever be good for was being lied to and used.

But this is not that universe.

He’s not that Duke.

He sees their love and guilt, has felt their support, their strength. He believes them now when they tell him he is more than any Trouble, is working up to believing the Trouble bomb wasn’t his fault. More than that, he loves them. Plain and simple.

So he takes Audrey’s hand in his and her fingers are so small for someone so strong. He gives her an encouraging smile. “Come on,” he says, and inclines his head to Nathan. “I think we all need to wash up.”

Audrey’s answering smile is wan at best. “At least we know this stuff comes off,” she tries for teasing but doesn’t quite make it.

“Fewer side effects too,” Nathan quips dryly.

When they step into the spray of the shower Duke gives Audrey the loofah, takes her hands and presses them to his back.

She bites her lip, but her gaze is determined now. Her hands are no longer frantic but careful, purposeful as they wash the grease off his body. When the grease is gone, her fingers trace over the muscles of his back so lightly it makes Duke shiver but in a good way.

“Her marks,” Audrey stumbles over the words, stops and tries again, “they were here, but they’re gone now,” she says, and it’s a reassurance to all of them. The Troubles are over; they’re _safe._

Audrey moves to face him. “My mark,” she closes her eyes and when they open they are full of regret and sorrow, “my mark was here.” She places her hand on Duke’s chest, where she re-Troubled him; she shivers and Duke wraps his larger hand around her small fingers.

“And that’s gone too,” he tells her. Though he never saw the prints, he knows they were there, assumed they went away when the Troubles did. Though now he’s realizing it’s something that affected Audrey more than he thought.

“It’s gone,” Audrey confirms.

Duke leans down and kisses her then, slow and gentle, a reassurance. He takes her hands and places them on his chest, right where her mark was. Audrey strokes over his skin, skims her hands along his ribs, strokes her fingers up his back into the hair at the nape of his neck, scritches lightly there.    

He wonders if she worries sometimes that he feels Mara in her touch. He could never confuse the two.

Audrey’s small hand moves up along his shoulder, she wraps her warm fingers around the back of his neck, pulling him around and down, kissing him soft and sweet. Duke opens under her ministrations, welcoming her tongue, pulling her slick body against his, reassuring her with actions instead of words that he’s okay. She didn’t fail him when it counted.

Audrey is all soft curves against Duke’s front and Nathan long lean planes against his back. The shower pelts them with warm water while sandalwood scented steam rises around them. Duke feels completely surrounded, but by good things. It’s a little weird and a lot hard to believe, but he’s certainly not going to complain or waste time wondering if he deserves it. The answer is no. But he’s going to take what he can get anyway.

Duke kisses Audrey’s temple, whispers the words “it’s over,” against her skin. “It’s over,” he tells her. They’re all still working at believing that.

“It’s over,” Audrey echoes. If they keep saying it, eventually it might sink in.

“It’s over,” Nathan agrees, kissing his way across Duke’s shoulder blades.

Duke doesn’t know if Nathan understands how much it means to him that their estrangement is over. When Nathan says those words, he means the Troubles are over, the wondering if today might be the day they get the call that one or both of the others are gone is over. But to Duke those words also mean that Nathan trusts him again, that their fighting is over. Oh, they still argue about silly things, but the distrust is gone. He feels it in the tenderness of Nathan’s hands on his hips, in the way that Nathan never gets jealous or possessive of Audrey. Nathan trusts Duke to love her, and that really blows Duke’s mind sometimes because he knows how much Nathan loves her. In an even smaller part of himself, he realizes that Nathan must in turn trust Audrey to love him.

He knows Nathan is watching as he catches Audrey’s wrists, brings her hands over his heart.

“We’re okay,” he tells her and it’s not the first, fifth or fiftieth time, but it’s another thing they’ll keep saying ‘til it’s true.

“We’re okay,” Audrey repeats, and Duke can see that she settles. Some of the panic seeps out of her, washed away down the drain like the remnants of the engine grease.

He runs his hand down the side of her face and she is so soft under his fingers. Those clever blue eyes fall closed, and she leans into his touch like a cat. Duke kisses her gently and then with intent. When the kiss ends, he catches her gaze. “I want your hands on me,” he says, “both of you,” he adds, reaching behind him to run a hand down Nathan’s side.

“Well now,” Audrey sasses, and it’s not up to full strength yet but it’s getting there. “I think that’s the best plan either one of you has come up with all day.”

Duke laughs even as she stretches up to kiss him.

Nathan runs clean fingers down Duke’s sides and back up to cup his chin and draw him into a kiss.

Audrey’s exhale sounds suspiciously like “so pretty,” but Duke can’t be upset. He likes the idea that Audrey likes watching him with Nathan.

So he amps up the kiss, tongue slipping out to slide along Nathan’s lower lip oh so lightly, making him shiver and gasp, and Duke takes full advantage of the gasp to suck Nathan’s lower lip, nip it gently. Duke’s hands are not idle; he skates his fingernails just so, lightly down Nathan’s sides, the way he knows raises goose bumps of the good kind all along Nathan’s skin. Nathan’s hands on his wrists are a surprise though, as he pulls them away and looks Duke in the eye.

“No,” Nathan says, though his pupils are blown wide, “this is about _you_. Tell us what you want,” he insists.

Duke wonders if there's guilt in Nathan's words too. They’ve never really done anything like this in the months since the Troubles ended. Sure Audrey’s as bossy in bed as she is out of it, and Duke is rarely shy about what he wants, and wow has it been fun testing Nathan’s threshold for sensitivity since he got his touch back, but the two of them waiting to fulfill Duke’s every whim? That’s a new flavor. A nice one, a very nice one but...Duke flounders for a moment under their expectant gazes. There's nothing to make up. He starts to say that, to argue, but Nathan flicks his gaze to Audrey and back to Duke. _Give her this,_ his look seems to say.

So Duke puts on his best dirty grin. “I think we’re gonna need a bed for this,” he announces with a wink.

They tumble out of the Rouge’s head and into the main suite with its California King bed, all hands and lips and ineffectual towel swipes. Duke ends up sprawled in the middle of the bed, wet hair soaking into the pillows behind him, Audrey on one side and Nathan on the other.

Duke threads his fingers into Audrey’s hair, feels the cool slide of water dripping out of it.

“Kiss him,” he instructs, thinking of what a nice view she must have had earlier.

For a moment Audrey pauses, a fleeting look of something…unsure crosses her face, but then she kneels up and over Duke so her breasts sway right in his eye line and kisses Nathan just the way Duke likes to be kissed, all teasing lips and soft sighs and Duke sighs too, because yeah that’s a really nice view. He runs a finger down Audrey’s back, along the dip of her spine, and she shivers into the kiss with Nathan, nipples hardening right in front of Duke’s eyes. He traces loose circles around and around her pretty tits, getting closer and closer to her nipples when Audrey breaks away from the kiss to round on him.

“I don’t think he gets it, Nathan,” Audrey says and gives Duke a grin that’s wicked and full of intent.

Duke- Duke likes that grin even if he is a little wary of it. Audrey puts her hands on his chest, strokes her fingers down, down, down to the dip of his belly button and stalls there, just drawing loose circles around and around.

“This is for _you_. Tell us what you want. Say the words, Duke,” she tells him.

And Duke rallies, despite the surge of blood away from his brain. “You want me to tell you to suck me off?” the words come out gruff, rumbling up from his belly where most of his blood has migrated to. “To make it last, draw it out, leave me panting and screaming?” he asks watching with satisfaction as Audrey’s eyes darken.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Nathan warns him with a slow, promising smirk, and if Duke wasn’t hard before, Nathan’s smirk would have been enough to do it.

Nathan and Audrey all but pounce, pushing Duke back into the pillows, each of them holding a wrist down to the bed so he can’t move. Nathan noses behind Duke’s ear, then starts planting slow, sucking kisses down the side of his neck. Duke whines when Nathan hits that sensitive spot they discovered back in high school, when all they did was make out and dry hump each other for the longest time. On the other side, Audrey echoes Nathan, adding teeth to the mix, scraping softly against Duke’s skin, making him hiss in air because the sensations of soft tongue and gentle teeth are so different, the contrast is driving him crazy.

Nathan sucks a hickey into Duke’s collarbone, because that bastard knows all his hot spots. Audrey draws the nail of one finger around and around the pebbled areola of his flat nipples. Duke’s already panting by the time Nathan’s big, warm hands slide down his sides to stop at the v of his hipbones. Nathan traces the indentations with his thumbs, sucks a kiss into the one closest to him, making Duke squirm. Audrey’s nail accidentally catches on his nipple and Duke whines because good, good, that’s a lot of good.

Then they both stop as if by some unspoken command. Audrey crawls down to where Nathan’s pillowed his head on Duke’s lower abdomen, breath gusting across Duke’s cock, hot and wet and nnngh! Audrey leans down and Duke holds his breath. Instead, she tilts Nathan’s head up and kisses him, her damp hair falling all around Nathan’s face and onto Duke’s stomach, barely brushing where he’d like her to touch him. Nathan follows her up, and they kiss right over the head of Duke’s cock like it’s not even there.

“Guys,” Duke definitely doesn’t whine, he’ll argue that. All of his bravado leaves him, and he finds himself fumbling for words.

Audrey breaks the kiss to arch an eyebrow at him. “Yes? Tell us what you want, Duke,” she insists straight faced, but her eyes are full of wicked enjoyment with just the shadow of something else. She picks his hand up off the bed and draws it to her lips, sucking the tip of his middle finger into her mouth, swirling her tongue around, and Duke feels that all the way down in his balls.

“Jesus, Audrey,” he swears and she smiles, lets his finger go with a pop.

Duke groans and drops his head back into the pillows. He’s not shy, he’s done more than this even in the last few months since they started sleeping together, but somehow it feels different tonight. They’re focused on him with that intensity that they usually saved for solving Troubles and it’s… Duke wants it but he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He feels exposed in a way that has nothing to do with being naked. They know how much he wants them. He can’t hide it like this.  

“Come on, Duke, we can be so good to you,” Audrey coaxes.

What does she want? How can she expect him to be coherent at a time like this?

“Suck me,” he whimpers and Audrey grins and moves to make it so. She sucks kisses over his hip bones and into the crease of his thigh, leaving Duke panting, head thrown back, neck muscles standing out.

“Where?” Nathan demands.

He asked, damnit, he shouldn’t have to say anything else.

“Here?” Audrey asks and sucks a kiss into his inner thigh. “Here?” she tries again, higher.

Duke makes a strangled noise and blurts out, “The head! Just… please!” Duke pants and Nathan smirks and then swallows the head of Duke’s cock immediately, cheeks hollowing around it. Duke whimpers and tries hard not to thrust against Nathan’s face.

Audrey curves around and curls up against Duke to watch, head on his shoulder, breasts pressed into his arm, one leg hooked a little over his--not enough to disturb Nathan but enough for Duke to know that she’s very much turned on too..

“So pretty,” Audrey murmurs again, stroking her fingers lightly against Duke’s ribs, almost enough to make him jump, definitely enough to distract him from Nathan’s talented mouth--which is probably for the best, as it would be embarrassing if this ended in the next thirty seconds.

“You look good when you’re being loved, Duke Crocker,” she tells him. “Your face is all flushed, and there’s a vein right here on your neck,” she traces it with a fingertip, “that stands out and it’s just so pretty,” she sighs. Duke shivers all the way down to his toes at her voice, her tone, her words…

“Is he good at it?” she asks, breath hot against his ear.

Duke nods frantically, croaks out an emphatic “Yeah!” that makes Nathan’s mouth curve into a grin around his dick. Duke cranes around to see Audrey’s reaction but she moves back to dropping kisses along his neck.

“What do you like best, Duke?” she murmurs. “Suction?”

Nathan, that bastard, fucking _winks_ at him and then sucks, hard, hollowing his cheeks at Audrey’s words, making Duke’s toes curl at the end of the bed. And all Duke wants is to lay back and enjoy it, but Audrey keeps talking, her whole body gone tense against his. He thinks she might really expect a response, like Duke can do anything besides remember how to breathe right now. Why's she torturing him?

“Do you like it when he licks your whole cock?” She purrs, licking a stripe along his ear, making Duke jerk and whimper even as Nathan pulls away to lap at the head of Duke’s cock and yeah…that was, that was good too. “I like that,” Audrey tells him, “Nathan doesn’t do anything by halves, does he?”

Duke shakes his head, because yeah, no--Nathan doesn’t do anything unless he’s giving it his full attention. Duke definitely cannot complain about being the focus of that attention. His eyes slip closed, but Audrey keeps talking, keeps teasing, that same tension in her body entering her voice now. It's just a little off, her tone, different from the one she usually uses in bed, but the words she’s saying are too distracting for Duke to pin down what’s different. Especially when she asks things like “What about when he jerks you off?” and Nathan’s hand closes around the base of Duke’s cock and pumps up and down in long, smooth strokes.

Audrey and Duke watch Nathan work in fascination.

Duke hears Audrey draw a breath and knows whatever is coming next will be good.

“What about when he licks your frenulum?” Audrey breathes against Duke’s ear and wow, is that a good idea.

Nathan stops his stroking to tongue just that tiny little ridge of flesh on the underside of Duke’s cock from the head to the shaft. Duke’s eyes close to slivers and he moans, head thrown back, neck muscles corded.

“Fuck!” he gasps and Audrey and Nathan grin at each other.

“Yeah, just like that,” Audrey croons, “just keep stroking him like that. You’re gorgeous, you know that, Duke? All strung out and on the edge. I don’t think we’ve hit on your fa-favorite thing yet though.”

Duke hears the waver in her voice and something clicks.

“Audrey,” Duke says and he's no longer on the edge of losing control. He knows what the tension in her voice is, hears the bravado in her tone for what it’s covering: the fear hiding in her eyes that he thought he’d banished before. He takes hold of her hand and grabs Nathan’s, and leads them both to his erection, wrapping their fingers around it. “My favorite is both of you, together,” he tells her voice intense and deadly serious.

“I love both your hands on me at the same time,” he strokes their hands up and down his shaft so slow it makes his teeth ache but he's proving this point, he can't let himself get distracted. Audrey’s eyes are focused on his, searching for the truth in his words. “I love that I can close my eyes and still know which of you is touching me.” He hisses in a breath as Nathan changes their stroke, fingers tangling around his cock. “I love feeling the gun calluses on your fingers because no one else has those same calluses,” he tells them.

He opens his eyes, locks his gaze with Audrey’s “I know who you are, Audrey Parker,” he says, low and intense and she startles, blue eyes gone wide in surprise. Yes, he knows just what she’s worried about now. And she has no reason to be. “I have no doubts. Mara could never have touched me like you even though she used the same hands. It’s all Audrey in these strokes,” he drags her fingers up and down his erection again, making a point of it this time, her hands on this sensitive, vulnerable part of his body. He hopes it speaks of trust, buoys his words with actions. “Your hands are always tender even when you’re being rough,” he says with a little gasp as he scrapes her thumb over the tip.

Audrey’s eyes are locked on his, listening with such hope burning in them it hurts to see.

He’s sorry he didn’t say this before, sorry he let her wonder. He didn’t know she needed these words. He hopes they are enough.

“I always feel like your touches are about me, about what I like not about getting what you want; I can feel how much you care in each fingertip. I love it when your hands are confident, you know what I like and you know you’re welcome to touch me because you do have that right. The best part though, is that Audrey, you see me-- the real me. Mara could never know me like you do and that makes all the difference. So Audrey Parker rest assured I want your hands on me as much as Nathan’s--these clever, wicked, soft, gentle hands that I know are yours. My favorite is both of you together.”

And Audrey grins, that wide, unreserved happy grin that she so rarely uses, the one that makes Duke feel like he’s won the lottery every time she turns it on him. Her eyes are relieved even as she sasses him. “All you had to do was ask,” she tells him, and then she and Nathan are working in tandem, hands fisted around his cock in slow, even strokes. Audrey’s soft, slender fingers and Nathan’s longer, rougher digits pump him in sync, their warm palms spreading heat through Duke’s belly. Duke whines and his heels scrabble in the sheets--like he’s going to go anywhere? Yeah, right.

Nathan gives him a soft look full of approval and affection and it makes Duke grin, he’s done good if he’s met with Nathan’s approval.

Nathan and Audrey start kissing right over the head of his cock while they pump him closer and closer to the edge. What gets Duke is how careful they are, how they listen to how his breathing switches when they get a stroke just right, how they tune in to what he really likes instead of just what feels natural to them. Then they’re kissing around the head of his dick, both their tongues sliding around and over the tip, licking his frenulum and slit, careful, careful, careful again not to let their teeth get too close.

Audrey reaches out with her free hand and rolls his balls and Duke comes with a surprised shout and comes and comes and wow. He drops his head back to the mattress and just rides the wave of sensation until he’s empty and brainless, loose limbed and spent.

When he recovers enough, Audrey and Nathan take turns kissing him softly, bringing him down from his high. Audrey’s hand lays over his heart, and he knows she is paying attention to the beat slowing gradually back to normal. Nathan’s arm is curved across his shoulders and his nose buried in his hair. He can feel Nathan’s erection hard and insistent against his hip and knows they’re waiting for him. It’s another zing of pleasure to know that they don’t have to wait for him but they choose to.

Duke pants for a few more moments and then gets a palmful of Audrey’s behind, hauling her on top of him. “I think I might need to hear what your favorite things are, young lady,” he scolds and Audrey snorts and Nathan smirks.

Audrey sits comfortably across his lower abdomen and pretends to think about it, puts her most thoughtful face on and even taps her chin before giving him a slow smile. “I think I can make you an extensive list,” she agrees.

“Good,” Duke says, surging up to kiss her. He loves the puckishness in the grin she can’t fight even as she kisses him. It’s his favorite flavor of Audrey kiss, mischief and happiness on her lips.

“Then we’ll try Nathan," he declares.

"Mr. Functional Mute Wuornos himself?" Audrey teases.

"I hear you've got ways of making people talk," Duke shares conspiratorially.

Nathan folds his arms across his bare chest and tries to look forbidding. "I'm a hard nut to crack," he growls, but the dimple in his cheek betrays him.

"I dunno Nate, we can be pretty determined," Duke counters. He and Audrey exchange a look and they turn and pounce Nathan as one.

They get the list out of him.

Everyone's lists are pretty extensive by the time they're done.


End file.
